Having a young lad ask me for a spot - he was going for a PR at 45kg on squat… light weight stuff but coudos on him getting a spotter (he is also returning from a hip injury).
6 Likes
That was heavy to all of us at some point. Great to see someone starting great habits.
2 Likes
I had my friend squat 45kg for the first time today. So proud of him
2 Likes
Last night was my kid’s first hockey skating lesson (not a hockey practice, just hockey-related skating). He’s been loving his skating lessons up until now, but he was so anxious leading up to this because it was going to be different. (He even said he now doesn’t want to play hockey at all - which would be totally okay, but that’s beyond the scope of this post.)
Anyway, we get there, and of course the kid has the time of his life. There were some older kids taking the ice afterwards for their actual hockey practice, and he immediately wanted to go do that.
We had told him that this new hockey lesson is later than usual, so we would need to go get ready for bed right when we get home. It was dark and lightly raining, but when we got home, I surprised him by asking if he wanted to play some hockey in the driveway first like those kids at the rink. He lit up.
I’m sure other parents can relate, but after everything, playing hockey together in the driveway in the rain – laughing until our bellies hurt – was one of those moments.
8 Likes
Despite spending well over $10,000 on hockey over the years, I still can’t ice skate. I could, however, be the street hockey goalie on pavement and the knee hockey goalie in the basement.
Good luck raising your hockey nut. Hockey consequences were our number one tool to shape his behavior as a child. He would do anything, even his homework, to make sure we didn’t make him sit on the end of the bench in his street clothes ever again.
1 Like
Gilman, Colorado. Mining Ghost Town about 2.5 Hours Deep into the Rockies. This terrain was pretty rugged, had to do alot of hiking. It’s essentially situated on a sheer cliff face. Def the farthest out we’ve gone, other than maybe Arapaho National Forest, which we mistakenly ended up driving through an 8 Mile Stretch while the sun was setting… suspect shit.
Keota, Colorado. East Plains Ghost Town situated on the edge of a Native American Reservation. Alot of Derelict Homes. We found plenty things still inside, but out of respect of the people, we didn’t take anything.
(This is not my photo, but it’s an accurate representation) We visited this area called Vindicator Valley. 2 hours deep into the Rockies. It had the highest concentration of Mining Structures and Homesteads out of any area. I could count about 8 structures in a 3ish Mile Radius. We couldn’t explore everything as it was getting dark and was getting cold as shit.
Central City is another great gem for exploring, North West of Denver. Before entering, There’s a turn off to the left that takes you all the way to Nevadaville, which is essentially another Mining Ghost Town. This is just off that road, it’s the farthest we went.
Outside of lifting, Urban Exploring and Rural Exploration are what makes me happy. If you search hard enough it’s pretty easy to find an adventure, Honestly the Eastern Plains has just as much abandoned farm houses, barns etc. as the Rockies do. I wouldn’t be able to take a picture of every little structure we’ve found haha. My family doesn’t understand the point and they tell me it’s a waste of money to drive around just to look at some broken houses, but Me and my GF really love the experience and history behind the location
11 Likes
I’m putting this in my tool box for my kid … will also apply it to any other activity he takes liking to
1 Like
I GOT SUBSIDISED HOUSING!!!
lottery went in my favour
I’ve been (secretly) happy that the rain meant we got the weekend off work, haha.
“Oh no, we can’t go do construction work in August? Bummer!”
4 Likes
Hey Jshaving, are you a laborer or do you have a skilled trade? I’m curious, if you don’t mind sharing.
1 Like
Welding aluminum all week.
I am Groot!
1 Like
When I work (it’s not my full time profession) I work at the masonry company my dad works at. Within the masonry trade, there are different levels - you start as a tender.
Tenders prepare job sites for the masons, set up scaffolding, mix concrete, cut individual bricks/blocks/stones for the masons as needed, stuff like that. You basically prepare everything and have it always within reach of the masons so that they never have to leave their area or stop what they’re doing - everything is arranged so that they can be as efficient as possible.
If you stick around for a while, probably a minimum of a couple years, and are viewed as a good worker, intelligent enough, and intend in staying in the field, you can become an apprentice, where you will still perform many of the same duties as the tenders, but will also begin to be trained as how to be a mason.
If that goes well, after enough time you can become a mason.
At least this is my experience. My dad has almost always worked for a place aligned with the Intl. Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, but plenty of people do the job for a summer and call themselves bricklayers/masons, and can advertise themselves as such for clients.
I’m definitely biased, and I’m not saying one can’t learn quickly/on their own, but in my experience, one of the benefits of the union is that you’re (usually) trained well and your work is held to a high standard. I’ve worked with union guys and non-union guys, and can definitely see a difference in the quality of their work. That doesn’t mean I love everything about the union - in some ways they suck, but in this regard, I think they do a good job. Every trade has unions and some are better than others, so feelings on unions in general differ.
That was a long answer, sorry. My point is, I work in a skilled trade, but I wouldn’t call myself a skilled tradesman, because I am at the lowest position and likely will not stay in the field consistently enough to advance to the level of mason/bricklayer. It’s sort of a summer/weekend deal for me.
EDIT: I know you’re getting into the construction field, and if you ever get the chance to be hands on, I’d highly recommend masonry. It’s used in tons of, if not almost every, building, both commercial and residential, and a good mason can build something that’ll last 100 years. It’s an awesome skill to have.
3 Likes
Wow, this is the first time I have ever heard of a tender. I never thought their could be a position below apprentice. I learned something new, I appreciate that!
Is your dad a master mason? (I just made that up idk if that exists) I’ve heard of the terms apprentice, journeyman, and foreman. I also heard of master, like a master electrician or master plumber, but idk if that’s specific towards certain trades.
Has your dad ever considered becoming a masonry project manager? From what I’ve read now and in the past, it’s evident he absolutely loves what he does. Becoming a project manager in masonry would be a great idea if he ever wanted to step out of the field, he would be flawless at that too.
That’s right, specifically construction management, there are like three typical tracks one could choose for their career. These roles can be found at a general contractor or subcontractor, but the information listed below is in terms of the how the general contractor is structured.
Superintendent - managing on-site operations of the projects. You’re pretty much babysitting the tradesman and making sure the project is being installed according to the specifications. Also, they make sure safety standards are upheld on-site.
Specifications, in a nut shell, are a pretty much a rule book of how a project is to be built and what needs to be included.
Project Manager - Tracking the budget of the project, getting material delivered to the site, involved with scheduling work on the project. Their work involves answering or issuing RFIs, submittals, change orders, and possibly writing contracts and issuing them to subcontractors. The contract will always be in favor of the general contractor.
Submittals - documents that need to be sent and approved by the architect so the subcontractor can bring material on site. The required kinds of submittals (product data, certifications, permits, whatever) are written in the specifications. Subcontractors send these to the general contractor for review, to an engineer, and to the architect. It needs to be reviewed by all of these parties before material can be brought on site. The documents need to be stamped by all parties for approval.
Change Order - money added or deducted from the original dollar value of the project. Ex: This could happen if you were digging on the site and find dinosaur bones. Now a stop order is issued and the state and some rando history guy get involved delaying your project. The site contractors are only allowed one excavator on site now. The site contractor is pissed because he is losing money now from being slowed down. He issued a change order to the general contractor asking for more money. A project manager (and perhaps a senior project manager) would have to sign off on the change order (which is essentially a contract) in order for the sub to get that money.
Subcontractors absolutely love change orders because since they are experts within their specialty they can bullshit in order to potentially put away more money in their pocket, ignorance is bliss. I’ve worked with a steel project manager (throughout an internship) who was very good with this. Sometimes it was funny seeing 1 million dollar change orders being rejected.
RFI (Request for Information) - This is pretty much asking a question to the architect or engineer for any technical related problems. Sometimes subcontractors will issue RFIs to the general contractor In my experience, the engineers are smart as hell (as usual) and architects are well… architects. Btw when writing an rfi or responding to one (from any party), unless a party is an idiot, will be written in a weird legal contract language way because everyone wants to avoid a lawsuit.
Estimator - If an owner (entity or person with a lot of money) advertises a new construction a job, a variety of general contractors will be competing against each other to win that job. This is done through the bidding the process and it is essential for a general contractor to have estimators. They figure out the costs of the project and submit that price. Most of the time, the lowest bidder wins because the owner is a cheapskate.
They figure out the cost of a project based off the bidding contract documents. I wouldn’t call bidding documents prototypes, but they kind of are. Sometimes these drawings have major mistakes. The cost will be typed up into an excel spreadsheet most of the time. The cost is typical broken down by divisions or something known as CSI MasterFormat. Masonry is division 4, concrete is division 3, steel is division 5, blah blah blah.
In some cases the cost can be broken down by systems of the project such as site work, core, shell, foundation, etc. The estimate will include the cost of material, labor, delivery, bonds, insurance, contingency, escalation etc.
The cost can also vary on the kind of contract because you have guaranteed maximum price, cost plus fee, lump sum, whatever. If it’s cost plus fee contract then there’s a a fee (percentage) added to the estimate.
The estimator (specifically from a general contractor) typically doesn’t TRULY know how much money each division of work cost cause if they did, then subs wouldn’t make money. An estimator will be given the bid set constructions plans, use estimating software (such as blue beam or on-screen takeoff), and utilize maybe three tools: linear footage tool, square footage tool , count tool. Finding quantities for different divisions is kind of like coloring, now all the other stuff is quite difficult.
Estimator can use a book called RS-Means to try and find the unit price of material. Now this may not be so useful due to the constant increases of construction material prices. An estimator may be better off calling subcontractors for a quote of each division of work. Subs are pretty happy to provide one, in hopes they will be selected for the general contractor’s job.
All of this information goes into the form of proposal to compete against other contractors in the bidding process
There’s also other roles such as a scheduler or quality control manager.
I honestly think just about any trade is awesome, I really envy the specialization of something. A buddy of my older brother is a union mason, I really enjoy watching his Instagram stories lol. If I ever to learn a trade I would want to be a union pipefitter or inside wireman. There’s actually an IBEW training center like maybe 20 minutes away from my parents house.
Often, I’ll play around with the idea of graduating college, applying for an apprenticeship, and then eventually earn my Journeyman and Master Electrician License. I’d only do it for the sake of making myself insanely marketable (probably more competent too) in the construction/ construction management job market. I would be a really good project manager, superintendent, or estimator. Having a specialty would also allow me to communicate on a greater level with the foreman of that trade.
Believe me, new college grad assistant superintendents or project engineers are quite incompetent and may try and bully the tradesman to an impossible schedule without understanding the kind of work that is being done. This is probably a non-union labor thing issue though.
Typically large national general contractors have an entire company division dedicated to Mechanical, Electrical, or Plumbing services. The specific role would be called an MEP Manager, unfortunately these specialized roles aren’t really seen with other divisions of work at general contractors (masonry, steel, glazing, drywall, etc.).
But, there are always subcontractors and there’s always the opportunity to become a specialized project manager there. I’ve looked at a couple masonry subcontractors before. It’s quite hilarious how they pay more than the general contractors.
The whole electrician apprenticeship thing really just an idea though, I have too much student loan debt and the 1st year apprenticeship rate is poopoo. Also, I’m kind of scared of electricity so I probably won’t enjoy it. Now if I didn’t have the debt, then I would absolutely get my journeyman license in something, just probably not electricity lol.
Anyway, once again I appreciate you sharing Jshaving. It’s only fair that I share and I really just love this field, which is why I asked.
Construction to me is combination of “how much money can we extract from xxx ?” and building a
1 Like
mum and little bro are going out of town this weekend.
Dad and I are going to have a WWII movie marathon
6 Likes
Have you seen Sisu? Pretty over the top but I enjoyed it.
1 Like
yeah, I watched it but I didn’t really like it. Their depiction of the red army was way off. worse than Enemy at the Gates
We’re going to watch Brest Fortress, a couple of episodes of a Chinese series (dad is almost done with it) and go to a museum commemorating the battle of Shanghai
1 Like